Adopting A Greyhound Part 1: The Adoption Process

If you follow me on social media, you’ll know that Jake and I recently brought home a new furry friend. Our retired racing greyhound, Harvey, has now been part of our family for one week and we could not possibly love him more! If you’re interested in adopting a greyhound, I wanted to share a bit about our journey so you know what to look forward to. But first, I want to bust a few common myths about the breed!

Greyhounds are very hyper dogs. Not at all! This is a common misconception because of their racing careers. People tend to think that because greyhounds can run 65km/h they’re energetic dogs that need a lot of exercise. This could not be more untrue. In fact, greyhounds are known to sleep upwards of 20 hours per day. They typically need 2-3 hearty walks each day, with a chance to run twice a week. Other than that, you can find them lounging on their beds, catching some Zs.

Greyhounds are vicious. Most of the time when you see a greyhound on the street, they will be wearing a muzzle. (In a lot of places, it’s actually by law). Because of this, people think they’re vicious dogs. The reality is that they wear muzzles to protect themselves. Greyhounds have very thin, delicate skin that can be easily damaged. The muzzle is a sign to other (unfamiliar) dogs/people to stay away so that the greyhound isn’t roughhoused and harmed.

Greyhounds need a lot of space. Nope! In fact, greyhounds are known to be one of the best apartment dogs due to their calm nature, quietness and sleeping habits. Greyhounds will rarely bark at outside noise and spend most of the day sleeping, so they aren’t likely to disturb other residents.

So there you have it! Maybe you learned something new about the breed. Now, let’s get in to the adoption process.

For Jake and I, we spent month casually looking at various dogs and breeds. We knew we wanted a dog but struggled to find a breed that would best suit our lifestyle. After months of searching, we settled on trying for a greyhound. We put in an application via Camp Greyhound (CGAP). This process was a bit different than what we expected as we didn’t apply for a specific dog; we put in a general application and CGAP would match us to a hound they thought would work for us.

The whole process went very quick considering there was no specific dog from the get-go. Once we put in our application, we were contacted via email the next day to arrange a phone interview. About a week and a half later, we spoke to one of the organization’s volunteers and she put together a profile on us. She asked us questions about ourselves, and clarified any uncertainties we had.

From there, a home inspection was set up and two volunteers came and had a look at our home and gave us some more information about the organization and the breed. The day after the inspection, we were approved to go forward with the adoption process!

There was radio-silence for about a month following our approval as they had no new hounds up for adoption at the time. This actually worked out well for us as it gave us time to ‘dog proof’ our house and purchase the items we needed before our hound’s arrival.

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Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

We had originally been told that we would be given a female dog so we were thoroughly surprised when the organization contacted us and said they had two males for us to choose from! Sherman and Grant were new fosters from a track in West Virginia. So, after the month of silence, we hit the road to visit Camp Greyhound in Orillia Ontario and meet the new recruits.

Jake and I were convinced we’d be bringing home Sherman but tried to keep an open mind as we arrived to meet the two boys. We walked both of them separately and spent time getting to know them. Funny how life works because, almost instantly, we clicked with beautiful Grant! Because of our interest, CGAP reserved Grant for us and we arranged to pick him up for good two weeks later.

We sent in our adoption donation, signed some paperwork and headed back up to Camp Greyhound when it was time to bring him home. We decided to change his name to Harvey. (Harvey Dennett – like Harvey Dent. Any Batman fans out there? Get it??) We took a few days off work to help get him settled into his very new environment, and we’ve been loving getting to know him ever since. He has been the greatest addition to our home and we can’t wait for all the new experience to come!

If you want to hear more about our greyhound adoption experience, keep watching the blog and stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon!

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Posted by:Megan Dennett

Hey there! I'm Megan. I'm a newlywed, photographer, dog lover and aspiring writer residing just outside of bright and beautiful Toronto. You can almost always catch me with a soy latte in my hand and a smile on my face! I have a grand desire to help people – especially women – live out their full potential. Whether that is through life advice/tips, beauty hacks or easy recipes, I'm here to help you be the best version of you!

About Us

We are Justine & Megan – best friends and born & raised Canadian girls. Justine’s beautiful spontaneity has led her to beautiful London, England while Megan stays close to home in Toronto. This website is a place for us to share tips, tricks, hacks and whatever else our hearts desire! We hope you feel at home here.